There are many types of camera on the market which have their own integral built-in electronic flash. Sometimes the flash unit is incorporated into the front face of the camera and is activated simply by means of a switch. In other cases, the flash unit is in a "pop-up" housing such that, when the flash is to be used, the electronic flash housing is raised from the main body of the camera to an upstanding position.
In small cameras, however, there are often difficulties in positioning the electronic flash unit simply because of restrictions on space.
Further, the conventional form of electronic flash unit is a short straight flash tube and the light output from such a tube is by no means spatially regular. Generally a channel-shaped parabolic reflector whose axis extends parallel to the tube axis is provided. This ensures that there is a good uniform spread of the light forwardly of, and at right angles to, the longitudinal axis of the tube, i.e. when taking a photograph with the camera in the normal orientation, the spread of light is relatively uniform from top to bottom of the scene. However, there is little control over the spread of light width-wise by the parabolic reflector and therefore a great deal of light is often wasted into the side areas beyond the limit of the scene being photographed. With small readily portable cameras, this is a serious disadvantage because the flash unit is in any case relatively small and compact and so has a restricted light output and therefore any waste of light not directed into the area being photographed can be a serious disadvantage.
The invention has therefore been made with these problems in mind and aims to provide an improved camera having an integral flash unit which is capable of giving better illumination of the scene and were the flash unit will fit conveniently into the camera.